Expanded: Conductor Laurette Lee who was killed in train crash had appeared in documentary film (with video)

Jun. 27, 2011

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Laurette Lee said that to be a train conductor was to be the “mayor of a moving city.”

The “mayor’s” responsibilities ranged from ensuring passengers were taken care of to keeping the train up to code — and few ran their town better, many familiar with her work said.

Lee, 68, was the conductor of the Amtrak train in Friday’s crash in rural Nevada, where a tractor-trailer plowed into California Zephyr loaded with more than 200 passengers. The South Lake Tahoe resident died in the tragedy after working at Amtrak for more than 20 years.

Shayne Del Cohen, who produced a video of Lee conducting a trip from Winnemucca to Reno in September, said it was “absolutely” fitting for Lee to have died on the tracks.

“It’s always tragic when we lose somebody, but when you get to the other side, it’s much better to lose someone in an instantaneous demise when they’re doing what they love,” she said. “If I was given one word to describe her, she was a ‘railroader.’”

Lee’s family is littered with railroaders. Her great-grandfather and grandfather were also railroad men, her nephew is an Amtrak conductor, and her son is an Amtrak dispatcher, according to the Contra Costa Times.

Although her death has left many in pain, it has also left them with fond memories of her passion for railroading.

Tim Elam, who was also a conductor on the California Zephyr, but was a lucky survivor, paid his respects to Lee on Facebook.

“Laurette Lee lived and died for the railroad. She was a living legend,” he wrote. “In her eyes, if you weren’t a real railroader, you were only taking up space … I respected that about her. Here’s to, ‘The Queen of the Rail.’”